I'll take "What the Hell" for $100, Alex

So, via Tam we find this gem.

Gotta admit, I find the video humorous.

The folks at the Firearms Blog say they don't know what's being advocated, but I think I can see it: getting involved in being proactive for your child's safety. Which IS a nice message. However, I think (if we had kids), I'd like my wife to be able to back up her participation in the AmberWatchAlert.org with her fine lil' Kimber...

Having an alert system for missing children is good. Having would-be abductors know that mothers are likely to shoot them (and get away with it) is even better.

It's good I don't have kids...

Because of things like this. The story:

BARLETT, Kan. -- There's controversy at a Kansas school after a teacher shaved the head of a 6-year-old boy because of his haircut.

Derby McReynolds had his hair cut in a short Mohawk.

Bartlett school officials said that was unacceptable, and sent him home.

His parents trimmed the boy's hair to what they said resembled a military cut.

The next time Derby went to school, the principal had a faculty member shave the boy's head.

"They said we were being unfair to Derby, by letting him cut his hair cut that way. He wanted it that way. If you ask me, they were being unfair to Derby by not allowing him to keep his hair the way he wanted it," said Casey Sandusky, the boyfriend of Derby's mother.

"The school district in general is always trying to balance that student's individual right of expression with the expectations of the building of each of the teachers, of parents and other students," Labette School Superintendent Dr. Chuck Stockton said.

His parents said Derby is wearing a hat until his hair is long enough to cut into a Mohawk again this summer.

Reminds me of a case here at home, where the daughter of a friend of the family was overheard telling a friend she thought she might be pregnant. Word got back to the guidance counsellor, who took it upon himself to restrict her to his office until she took a pregnancy test.

Now I don't know about y'all, but if a child of mine had something like this happen, I'd be looking for some time alone with whichever school drone was the perp. And chances are, they would think long and hard about EVER doing something similar to another kid.

Yes, children don't enjoy the same set of rights as adults. But things like this go way beyond what's acceptable. The sad part is, parents don't fight back, to keep the admins in check.

Kinda like how we let the gooberment keep getting away with stuff...

H/T to Jay G

Second Chances

OK... OK... I'm Posting already..... Its only been a few minutes......er.... days.........ok too damn long since I posted last. As to date my posts have not been anything that is really about me and who I am, no substance of how deranged is Slytly Deranged. This will be no different....

A lot of changes around here since my last post, I now have custody of my 16 year old son. I am overjoyed with this. I could write about it all day long and still never get out my feelings about him or how happy I am to have him. I could......but I won't. Two reasons....1.) If I did, this post would be different from my previous posts and I have already mentioned that this post would not be much different.....2.) I would rather you see his words about how he feels about being here.
I pulled the following from his myspace blog. These are his words, copied and pasted, no editing on my part:

A new school, a new home, sounds like an everyday thing in my life at this point huh? Well, this time it's different. I now have a place where I'm staying. I have a house and a school I don't have to leave anymore. It feels good to finally have some stability in my life. I get to have friends here that I won't leave two months from now, or just jump up and move without even saying good bye to them. I finally have a place where I can be me, but also I have a place I can care about. I used to not really care what anyone thought of me because I knew sooner or later, I'd be gone, far away from that place and probably never coming back. Granted, what I did to get here was nothing short of bad, I pretty much killed my mother with heartbreak. But when I think about how much better I'll have it here, I know I had to do it.... Here.... I don't have to worry about college tuition or a job or anything like that. Here, I can have everything I want because I now hold the tools I need to get them. When I was there, I was so un-happy all the time because all I would worry about was my future, here, I have another chance to re-write my future to a better ending.... My second chance in life.... Maybe one day you will all get one yourself.

Oh. My. Gawds.

So I'm cruising around, and catch this over at Atomic Nerds: 8 Year Old Girl Arrested for "Battery".

What. The. Hell?

I can kinda see some of the Zero Tolerance BS, and I could see the cops being called for a similar situation with a teen. But with a frelling 8 year old?

What kind of teachers can't handle an 8 year old in "fight or flight" without calling the police? I mean, all they had to do was get in the way, there was no need to go "hands on".

And the cops? Booking an 8 year old? Huh?

I suppose it coulda been worse, she coulda been tased.

Folks I have NO higher education. But even I know that, if an attempt to physically restrain a child results in their wigging out, the best thing you can do is back off. You'd think educators (you know: college degree an' all) would have been given that clue.

I'm glad I don't have kids: there would be some "educators" either looking at lawsuits, or hospital stays...

Eye-opening experience

Ok... so let me set the stage for this a bit.

For those who couldn't tell from the few photos, Sarah has a trach tube. This is from a house fire when she was 16. One of the things she told me about when we met was a "burn camp" she went to, that helped her overcome the emotional trauma the fire caused.

Ok... seems there's a local HOG chapter that does what they call a "Hearts on Fire" run out to the camp every year. They do a couple fundraisers, but the highlight for them (and for a bunch of the kids) was tonight: the ride out (there were 100 bikes for this year) to visit the kids.

I'll get the pics up in a couple days. Was WELL worth being up and running for 12 hours on this alone to cover the event!